ST. LOUIS — Portions of winter-weary Illinois braced Friday for another potent storm that forecasters warn could dump as much as 10 inches of snow on the state’s midsection, adding to what in some areas have been record accumulations.

The storm should leave much of its mark — 6 to 10 inches of snow — on central Illinois between Saturday evening and Sunday night as it creeps into Indiana and eastward, meteorologist Chris Geelhart said from the National Weather Service’s office in Lincoln.

About 7 inches of snow is expected to fall on Peoria and the surrounding area, according to meteorologist Dan Smith of the weather service.

“It’s just enough to fill in all the snow that has melted that past week,” Smith said. “No ice, no blowing, just snow.”

There is a chance of snow before 7 a.m. Saturday and then a chance after 1 p.m., according to the weather service. The high will be near 26. Snow should begin after 7 p.m. in earnest and the low will be about 12, with a wind chill between 8 degrees and 1 below zero.

The snow will continue Sunday. The high will reach near 18, with wind chills of 5 degrees to 2 below zero. The low Sunday night will be about 2.

The snow is predicted for parts of Illinois that already have endured a winter for the record books. Smith said Peoria already has received 50.2 inches of snow this winter season. The additional 7 inches would break the area’s single-season snowfall record of 52.6 inches, set during the 2010-11 winter.

Geelhart said Bloomington so far has gotten 46.7 inches this winter, eclipsing the 41.1 inches the city received during the same period in 1961-62. Springfield has tallied 42.3 inches, second only to the 52.1 inches that fell in 1977-78.

Lesser snowfall amounts — just a couple of inches — were expected in southern Illinois, where the larger concern would be a wintry mix of sleet and rain that could slicken roads with as much as a half-inch of ice after midnight Saturday, weather service meteorologist Chris Noles said from Paducah, Ky.

Around Chicago and much of the rest of northern Illinois, light snowfall Friday night and into early Saturday should intensify later that day, leaving behind 2 to 4 inches of accumulation, the weather service’s Richard Castro said. Sunday’s outlook for that region remains murky, depending on how far north the band that will sock central Illinois gets, Castro said.

Chicago’s winter already has been brutal, ranking third both in terms of snow and cold according to records dating to 1871. Gauges at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport have logged 68.3 inches of snow this winter, nearly double the typical 36.7 inches.

Page 2 of 2 - “It looks like we have a pretty good shot to crack 70 inches this year, and that’s pretty amazing for here,” Castro said. “It’s just an incredible winter.”